U. ponders benefits for domestic partners

The University administration is considering giving domestic partners spousal benefits, despite the increased costs that it may entail, officials said. "The University has certainly been thinking about this, and taking the matter under advisement this year," Vice-President for Human Resources William Holland said. "It is certainly an issue which is on our plate to deal with." Holland added that he has met with President Sheldon Hackney, Provost Michael Aiken and others interested in the community to discuss the issue. He said that the cost of providing partners with the same benefits as spouses does not appear to be excessive, but that it was still too early to make any projections on what the University will decide. A proposed amendment to the Philadelphia Code would require employers such as the University to provide unmarried domestic partners, including gay couples, with the same benefits as married couples. The University would not be the first to consider making such changes in its benefits policy. According to a report compiled by Stanford University's Committee on Faculty and Staff Benefits, the cost of providing domestic partners of Stanford employees with benefits will be "relatively trivial." Stanford's current medical benfits budget of $24 million a year would increase by $70,000 to $140,000 a year if medical coverage were extended to all gay, lesbian and heterosexual domestic partners, the report projected. The Stanford Committee estimated costs would go up $30,000 to $60,000 a year if only gay and lesbian partners receive benefits. Other universities have also begun moving toward giving spousal benefits to domestic partners. Alfred Bloom, president of Swarthmore College, told the college's faculty and staff in an open letter that the administration was currently reviewing ways to give domestic partners of employees coverage. Gay and lesbian students at the University said they are encouraged that benefits to unmarried couples are on the administration's agenda. "I hope that the University is carrying out its own policies and procedures of anti-discrimination which are in our own 'Policy and Proceedure Manual,' " said Allen Orsi, chairperson of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. "The question is not whether we will or will not offer benefits to gay and lesbian couples, but how quickly it will occur," he said. "Although it may be trendy to offer these benefits now, it's a basic right that should be afforded to all members of the University, and implicated on principle and not political motivations."